Nightfall

The winds and snow were not piqued, and the roads were not blocked. An old monk wearing a bamboo hat walked out of the Wilderness slowly, holding a monk’s staff in his hand. He entered the Yuelun Kingdom and walked up to the peak of a relatively low mountain.

The old monk walked extremely slowly. He was slower than the falling snowflakes, and seemed to be even slower than the snow melting. The grass slippers on his feet seemed to be stuck to the ground, and whenever he raised his feet it was as if he would raise the entire ground with it. That was why every step he took seemed arduous.

When he walked on the snow, he would raise the snow off the ground. When he walked on the mud, the black mud would be lifted off the ground. When he walked on the mountain path that was lined with pebbles, the surface of the path would be lifted. The mountain path that was covered in a light dusting of snow did not seem to have undergone any changes, but deep within the depths of the ground, a tugging ensued. A faint grumbling resounded; one that could not be heard by humans. The entire mountain groaned as the old monk continued forth.

Animals hibernating in the depths of the mountains were able to hear this sound. The wolf licking its matted fur raised its head up alertly. The magpie hidden in its nest looked to the distance in fear. The wildcat attempting to gnaw on a frozen deer yowled shrilly.

The old monk walked to the mountain’s peak, looking toward the south.

The snow stopped a few dozen miles south from the mountain’s peak. Most of the skies in the Yuelun Kingdom were devoid of any snow clouds. Meanwhile in Yuelun’s capital, Chaoyang City which was a few thousand miles away, was covered by a thick layer of clouds. From a few thousand miles away, the thick clouds looked like a lonely stemless flower that bloomed from loneliness in the Buddhist country.

The old monk looked at the clouds a few thousand miles away. The shadow of his bamboo hat did nothing to hide the expression of distress that slowly appeared on his aged face. Then, he tightly clutched the staff in his hand, poking it into the stones beside him. He said to the far off distance, “Man below clouds.”

The staff made contact with the stones on the peak like a hot knife slicking into a pile of snow. It was wedged deeply into the rock without any sound. The top of the monk’s staff made a soft clear sound as the old monk spoke, and the sound drifted out in all directions.

The old monk looked at the distant Chaoyang City and said, “Buddha left behind his chessboard, the peace bell, and other Dharma weapons before entering Nirvana. They were to point Buddhist disciples to the right path during the calamity that the world would face and the Dharma Ending Period that is about to come. However, Senior Brother, you have refused to walk on the path Buddha left behind and insist on walking your own path. Why is this so?”

After standing in silence on the peak for a long time, the old monk sighed and said, “Senior Brother, you were called Qishan then. I did not understand why. I only knew that it means taking the other path after Qi Nian told me about it. However, the other path is difficult. Buddha is compassionate, how could he bear to watch the people take the risks of the alternate path?”

With that, the old monk pulled his staff from the snow covered rocks and slowly walked down the peak. He seemed to be walking in the direction of Chaoyang City. However, he walked slowly and with much difficulty. It had taken him over a hundred days to reach the edges of the Wilderness, coming from the Xuankong Temple. Then, how long would it take for him to get to the city below the clouds?

“Since you chose the alternate path, then I can only take the shortcut.”

As the old man walked out of the periphery of the peak, he stopped on the rough and muddy mountain path and stretched out his staff. It looked as if he was calling for a carriage, but where would a carriage come from while in such a remote place?

This winter, the capital city of Yuelun Kingdom, Chaoyang City, experienced a constant gloom. Even though there were two light snowfalls, the thick clouds above the city had not dispersed.

Good and bad weather were common in this world. It wasn’t hard to imagine a hundred days of gloom, so in the beginning, the cloud did not attract anyone’s attention.

It was not until deep into the winter when the second snowfall fell, as Chaoyang City remained gloomy while the countryside was enshrouded in sunlight, that people in the city grew confused.

Explanations would be sought for, should one encounter doubts. When purposeful observations first began, the imperial court of the Yuelun Kingdom and the ordinary citizens finally noticed that there was something weird about the thick clouds in the sky. Someone recalled that the cloud above them had not dispersed since late autumn. More people noticed that clouds in the clear skies outside the city kept floating and merging into the clouds above the city.

The clouds hung above Chaoyang City, unbudging and growing thicker and larger by the day. It was too strange. At the beginning of autumn, the Yuelun Kingdom had announced that the Daughter of Yama had come. The imperial court had also acknowledged that she was in the country by issuing an arrest warrant. These incidents, together with the thick clouds above Chaoyang City made the citizens uneasy and fearful.

Those in Chaoyang City made plenty of conjectures and were very uneasy. The cloud became everyone’s focus and even the main topic of all conversations between the citizens of the Yuelun Kingdom.

“Did you see the cloud yesterday?”

“I can see it every day if I look up. Is there a need to look at it specifically?”

“I was talking about the new cloud that floated over yesterday. Haven’t you realized that the cloud is much thicker today?”

“It doesn’t look so. I went to rent a horse carriage yesterday. Was yesterday’s new cloud large?”

“Extremely large. It was already very close when I saw it. It was a little bigger than the palace.”

“That’s rather big. But I saw the new cloud that came from the east a few days ago. It looks so imposing, just like thousands of soldiers and horses of the Tang military.”

“Your analogy is great. Isn’t the Daughter of Yama a Tang?”

“Don’t talk to me about the Daughter of Yama. I’m afraid.”

“You’re not afraid, you’re just being careful. Did you rent a horse carriage to leave the city?”

“We have to leave. The cloud is too weird. What if it turns into a rock and falls on us? I can’t stand it.”

The snow cloud shadowed the city.

People in the city looked up every day for a long time and neck pain incidents became less and less. Many people began to pray. The streets were filled with the smell of incense. The temples collected more and more incense money. Some people were prepared to leave Chaoyang City to seek shelter with their relatives in the countryside. Businesses of those selling horse carriages bloomed.

The tense and uneasy atmosphere grew with the density of incense smoke. People began to fret and believed that the only thing that was effective was prayer. The masters in temples were naturally their best choice. In a matter of days, many ladies were hurt by such incidents.

There were countless Buddhist temples in the Yuelun Kingdom, of which the most famous were the 72 temples of Yanyu. The White Tower Temple in Chaoyang City enjoyed the undoubted recognition among the 72 temples. In the currently frightening atmosphere, the incense in the White Tower Temple burned the brightest. There were many believers who came forth to pray, and the temple was filled to the brim.

There were many believers crowding inside the White Tower Temple, and many more knelt outside. There were a dozen of believers who respectfully knelt on the stone steps outside the temple. They kept kowtowing, looking extremely pious.

Many Buddhist believers knelt at the stone steps because the abbot of the White Tower Temple had erected a statue of a baby boy who had a deep affinity with Buddha. The baby boy grew up to become the renowned Master Daoshi. That was why all believers had the notion that there were remnants of the spirit of Buddha, left behind by Master Daoshi on the stone steps and that it would bring them luck.

Ning Que shook his head as he looked at the scene. He held Sangsang’s slightly cold hand and squeezed through the crowd toward the White Tower Temple. He thought of how Quni Madi had a relationship with Baoshu and gave birth to her illegitimate son Daoshi. Where else would they send him other than to the White Tower Temple? What did it have to do with the spirit of Buddha?

Sangsang wore a light colored robe and had on a thick scarf that covered half of her face. Her hair had been cut extremely short, and her bangs fell to one side. She looked very refreshing, like a naughty little boy. Even those who had met Sangsang before would not be able to recognize her, much less those who had only seen her pictures.

“Perhaps those stone steps can really bring luck.”

Sangsang’s voice emerged from underneath the scarf, a little muffled, almost as if she had a blocked nose after a bout of flu.

Ning Que smiled slightly and softly said, “Even if it brings luck, it would not fall upon us. Don’t forget that I cut off Daoshi’s head in front of that bun stall in Chang’an.”

Sangsang said, “I wonder if it’s because we have done too many bad things and this is retribution. If we had known we were going to study Buddhism, we wouldn’t have been so disrespectful to the masters of the Buddhism Sect.”

Ning Que smiled and said, “I was feeling awful the day before I met Daoshi because it was the first time you ran away. I was angry and stayed by the Yanming lake for an entire night, and he still provoked me. Of course he was seeking death. It’s your fault.”

Sangsang said softly, “So it is I, who should experience retribution.”

“If there really is such a thing as retribution, would I need to kill Xia Hou? He would long have been dealt with by Buddha. No matter if it was Haotian Taoism or the Buddhism Sect, they would always call those from the Academy non-believers. To them, life is empty without beliefs, respect or fear. They think that it’d be hard for us to find true peace. However, to the Academy, belief and adoration are two different things. They really should reconsider the fear part of the equation.”

Ning Que thought of the kowtowing believers outside the temple. He thought of the families beside the courtyard burning incense and praying to a tree every day. He said, “The Yuelun Kingdom is a country with religious beliefs. But they believe in too many things, and they have too much fear of the unknown. What kind of belief is that then?”

The two had already walked deep into the main hall of the White Tower Temple as they chatted. It was crowded within the hall. Hundreds of believers knelt on futons, listening to the high monk in front preaching.

Ning Que brought Sangsang into the hall and found an empty futon. The believer who had his futon stolen was shocked to find himself standing behind a pillar when he had been carefully listening to the scripture just moments ago. However, he did not dare to make a din, afraid that the high monk would deem him not pious enough to have encountered such a situation.

Sangsang knelt on the futon and placed her palms together and vertically before her. She closed her eyes and began to listen to the scriptures and study Buddhism. Her expression was serene and pious, and her hair, which was black because it had been cut short began to rustle on her forehead.

She did not listen to the preaching of the White Tower Temple’s monk but only silently recited a part of the scripture. She studied not the solemn gold Buddha in front of the hall, but the Buddha in her heart.